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Maines Pincock Family

Jenny O'Hara Pincock, Canadian spiritualist, author and musician, was born in Madoc, Hastings County, Ontario in 1892, where her great-grandfather had been a settler. She studied music at the Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby, Ont. (ca. 1908) and at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto (ca. 1912). On June 15, 1915 she married osteopath Robert Newton Pincock and moved with him to St. Catharines. Ont. where he maintained a practice. Newton Pincock died in 1928.

Jenny Pincock's sister Minnie O'Hara Maines, married Fred Maines in 1922. Fred Maines was educated at Victoria University, Toronto and was ordained to the ministry while serving with the YMCA overseas during the WWI. After the war he served as Boys' Work secretary for the Hamilton YMCA and as general secreary of the YMCA in Hamilton and Galt. He served during for five years with the YMCA War Services during WWII. He was minister of the Church of Divine Revelation in St. Catharine's, Ont. from 1930 to 1935. In 1935 he and Minnie moved to Kitchener, Ont. to pursue business interests. He died April 13, 1954.

In 1927, together with her sister Minnie and brother-in-law Rev. Fred J.T. Maines, Jenny Pincock began to organize seances with Mr. William Cartheuser, an American medium, in St. Catharines, Ontario. Notes were kept of these seances and much of that material appeared in published form in Pincock's Trails of Truth (Los Angeles: Austin Publishing Co., 1930). In 1930 they founded the Church of Divine Revelation in St. Catharines, Ont., with Fred Maines as ordained minister. In 1932 the Radiant Healing Centre was established. In 1935 Jenny Pincock ceased connection with William Cartheuser and with the Church of Divine Revelation. In 1937 she moved to Kitchener, Ont and in 1942 she purchased and moved to property formerly owned by her grandfather near Madoc. She died in 1948 or 1949.

A book of verse by Jenny Pincock entitled Hidden Springs was published posthumously (Privately printed, 1950) with an introduction by E.J. Pratt.

The Pincock/O'Hara/Maines circle of friends was wide, and included E.J. Pratt and his wife; B.F. Austin, the noted Canadian spiritualist; the widow of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts; Phoebe Watson; William Arthur Deacon; W.W.E. Ross; Mildred Ghent, wife of Toronto Telegram writer, Percy Ghent, and many others interested in spiritualism in Canada and elsewhere. (Sources: Stan McMullin's Anatomy of a Seance. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004; contents of the fonds)

Maines Pincock family fonds

Contents

Fonds consists of material documenting the lives, interests and activities of Jenny Pincock, as well as her sister and brother-in-law Minnie and Fred Maines. The main focus of the fonds is the activities surrounding their interest in spiritualism. Includes correspondence; ms. and ts. seance transcripts and notes; ms. and ts. notes for and drafts of poems and other literary compositions by Jenny Pincock; clippings, ephemera, etc.

Arranged in series as follows:

Correspondence;

Manuscripts;

Notebooks;

Sittings : Notes;

Topical Files;

Clippings;

Rev. F.T.J. Maines;

Miscellaneous;

Pincock, Jenny : Works By;

Artifacts

Notes

Title from content of the fonds.

Extent is measured in linear metres of shelf space as occupied by the fonds.

Fred and Minnie Maines Library

The library of the late Fred and Minnie Maines was donated by their daughter, Mrs. Colleen Gildner. It is made up of approximately 600 books, periodicals, and ephemera related to spiritualism, psychic phenomena, and alternative religious movements. The book collection complements the archival portion of the donation, the Fred and Minnie Maines fonds.

The collection includes the library maintained by the Church of Divine Revelation and the Radiant Healing Centre, established by Newton and Jenny Pincock in St. Catharines. Fred and Minnie Maines continued to add to the collection over the years.

Many rare and important titles in the field of spiritualism are represented, such as B. F. Austin's The Prophet of Nazareth and the Seer of Poughkeepsie (Los Angeles: B. F. Austin, n.d.); Albert Durrant Watson's The Twentieth Plane (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1918); Florence Marryat's There is no Death (London: Rider, 1920); Thirty Years Among the Dead, by Carl A. Wickland (Los Angeles: National Psychological Institute, 1924); and several works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Several copies of Jenny Pincock's seance accounts, Trails of Truth (Los Angeles: Austin, 1930), are available, along with the original manuscript and notes.

Also present are numerous journals from the spiritualist community, such as Light: a Journal of Spiritualism, Psychical, Occult and Mystical Research, The Occult Digest, and Two Worlds: Monthly Magazine Featuring Spiritualism and the Supernormal. A complete run of Progression, published by the Radiant Healing Centre is present.

Other subjects represented include the Theosophical Society, psychic healing, numerology, and vegetarianism, as well as many other topics which are enjoying renewed popularity as part of the contemporary New Age movement.

Titles of Canadian literary interest include several first editions of works by E. J. Pratt (many of which are dedicated to Jenny Pincock and her husband, Newton, a childhood friend of Pratt's), a copy of Elsie Pomeroy's Sir Charles G. D. Roberts: a Biography (Toronto: Ryerson, 1943) which contains a dedication inscription to Jenny Pincock from Roberts' widow, Joan, and Jenny Pincock's own book of poetry, Hidden Springs (Privately printed, 1950), with an introduction by E. J. Pratt.

All items in this collection are located in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room and are non-circulating.